The Million Dollar Doll

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 2, 3 January 1924, Page 12

The Million Dollar Doll

TfclCTl. and Omrmtlfomson QAutfntisof 0 VAeJgfinros Onducton

WHO'S WHO IN THE STORY. TERESA DESMOND (Terry). lovely ana unbelievably innocent, is impersonating her beautiful half-sister. JULIET DlVlNE—known as the Million Dollar Doll—whose sketchy career is unknown to Terry. MILES SHERIDAN, Terry's "Dream Frlnce," furnished the money for her convent education when sne was a cUiW, His wife is rnuUing him wretched witu her infidelity, and in order to facilitate her obtaining a divorce. Miles offers the "Million Dollar Doll" 20,000d015. to take a yacht trip with him. Juliet is unable to | take the trip herself, but working on her little sister's gratitude to Miles, she persuades Terry, who is an exquisite counterpart of herself, to take her place. BETTY SHERIDAN, Miles' wife, is deeply in love with PAUL DI SALVAXO, a handsome Italian. EUSTACE NAZLO, a wseltny Greek, who does not know of Terry's relationship to Juliet, is in love wltll the younger girl. I iIRS. HABKNESS, Miles' old servant, is Terry's maid on board the yacht. Her parly disapproval of "The Million Dollar Doll'- is swiftly disappearing under the influence of Terry's child-like charm. But Miles, "The Prince," is cold and hostile. He has no desire to be friendly with this notorious young person, in -.whom he does not recognise the little girl he befriended so long ago. They talk for a few moments, but Terry fears he is making fun of her. Miles decides that the girl is a very clever "worker." CHAPTER XLI. Afraid of Himself. It was true, the bargain had been j tacitly made by word of mouth, through ; Hartley Phillips, that he wouldn't ! "trouble" the girl on board Silverwood. ' Hartley had said vaguely that she was \ thinking of marriage, and meant to "quit the White Lights" when she got back to New York. All the same, it had been Phillips' suggestion, not Juliet's, Sheridan understood, that he was to keep his distance. ! She had probably agreed, in pique and I hurt vanity. • I Sheridan couldn't help believing from | Phillips' hint about the "ingenue game," I and from, the provoking daintiness of the j girl's get-up, that she regretted the bargain; that she deliberately wished him to break it. Sheridan didn't, however intend to break his word. In fact, he meant to keep the bargain for the sake of his own dignity and his own decency; also because of the advantage his weakness would give the girl. Still, he thought of her. He thought | of her. He could see her, with his eyes j shut; delicate pointed face; rather high i cheek bones dashed with pink as it a I rose had struck the dazzling skin; red tair blew into tossed waves and curls; pure, small mouth, that could be passionate; and most haunting of all eyes, black at night, purple in twilight, green in the sun. They ivere eyes to lure a man. They ought to be old as sin. But they were not old at all. They were young as the first violets of springtime. Sheridan realised that he must keep a firm hold on himself when the time came to land as it wmild_j!Qon_ come, if he "didn't want Juliet Divine "to laugh at him. He treated her rudely again for a day, but she looked at him in hurt surprise, as if he had boxed her ears, and he relapsed into good manners. "There's another storm coming up," he said, pausing where the girl stood by the rail. "We'll be in for it towards night, I expect." Terry was so pleased with his relenting, that she gave him a sweet glance. "I shan't be afjaid this time, or think of trapped mice*' she smiled. "That is, unless it's worse than before. And 1 hope it won't be!" "Were you much afraid before!" Sheridan asked. ''You didn't show it, if you were." "I tried not to show it," she said. - I don't think I'm a coward about dyin£. But to drown! You know what I said about the mouse." '"We won't talk about drowning," said Sheridan. "But if you don't like being alone in a etorm, you'd better come and dine with mc to-night." The girl's eyes widened, and her colour rose. "Do you mean it?" she stammered. '•'You're not—joking?" Sheridan had certainly not meant it the moment before he spoke, and now lie had spoken he called himself a food —or worse still, a cad. Nevertheless nc wouldn't go back on his word, even though he knew what would happen if the 2irl accepted. The thing would be as much her fault ac his, but it would happen, and he would not be sorry it was too late. "Of course I mean it," he said rather roughly. Then he added, "if you're not more afraid of mc than the storm." For the first time since she had been on board Terry was happy. He didn't dislike her any longer. Though he'd been taking his meals in the little decK. suite, just to escape her company, now he actually invited her to dine with him—her Prince! She could have danced for joy. "Afraid of you?" she echoed with a eoft laugh. "I'm not afraid of you in the least." j "You're not, eh?" Sheridan looked | her in the eyes. "Well, I'm a bit afraid ; of myself. But, after all. what does it ' matter? The siren calls, the marine answers: It's your wish, then, that the 'bargain' between us should be 'off?'" ' "What bargain?" asked Terry. She ■had forgotten in her rapture. "The bargain that I was to keep away from you." "You wanted that," Terry reminded him. "I didn't. I—l'd like to be — friends." "Very well, then. Your blood be on your head if I lose my head a little —in the storm," said Sheridan. "Run away, now, I'm going on watch to. relieve Captain Yale. But dinner's at ei?ht. I shall expect you. Or, if it's TougTi, I'll go below to your cabin and fetch you." "Oh, do!" cried Terry and, obeying him, ran off, singing Sheridan had never heard her sing before. Her voice was sweet—a young j mezzo, with contralto notes, not badly i trained for that of an amateur. That convent of hers had turned her out the perfect, supper doll, with no accomplishment lacking! Sheridan wondered if the nuns, her instructresses, knew anything about their pupil's career. "She shall sing for mc," he said tohimself with a kind of fierceness. "AH that fuss about not taking the money

|\vas bunkum, of course. When sho finds ' that she can't play mc for a sucker — that my divorce will part us, not bring us together—Miss Ingenue will show her harpy claws. "She'll squeal for her twenty thou- | sand—more if she can get it. And per- ; haps she may get it—on the strength of ; the bargain ive'll break to-night. But who cares? Why shouldn't I have my : moneys worth? I "Why shouldn't I take what she offers I —what every soul on earth will believe il've had from the first? Why should I go through the courts for nothing?" CHAPTER XLII. A Broken Bargain. The sea roughened with each moment, but the motion was delicious to Terry. It was giving her the chance of dinner with the Prince! She had got her legs perfectly by ■ this time, and though the yacht rocked ;so that the girl slid from one side of the cabin to the other, she selected what she meant to wear for the evening, I and laid everything on the bed, without awkwardness or a stumble.

So far, during the cruise, she had put on some simple, though pretty afternoon froci, when dressing for her lonely dinner; but she determined to grace the feast in Sheridan's deck diningroom by appearing in one of the Monte Carlo gowns. The one liked best was a pale, appleblossom pink (of something material whose name the convent-bred girl did not know) draped over gold tissue. J There was very little of it, and the 1 nuns would have screamed at sight of i her bare neck and .arms, her silk- ! sheathed legs; but Julia and Emmeline i had assured her that everyone wore such clothes; that anything different was stuffy, old-fashioned, and prim. The dress was lovely! Terry couldn't help admiring herself in the long mirror, when she was ready, up from the little gold slippers with 'brilliant buckles, to the wreath of diamond laurel-leaves that banded her hair. It was as she fastened this wreath, arms uplifted, swaying to the pitching of the ship, that a knock came at the door. The storm was not very alarming, after all, and it hadn't occurred to Terry teat Sheridan would think it necessary to take her on deck. It must be Mrs. Harkness who tapped! Gaily she called out, "Come in!" As Sheridan opened the door, he had the pictures of a slim girl so pale that it was hard to tell where the flowertextured skin of neck and young bosom melted into semi-transparent, ninon. The slender arms were uplifted, for a wreath of spark-ling leaves was befog adjusted; and tho vision was repcatcH at full length, from another angle, in a large mirror. ; ' Just what he would do when he went to Hiss Divine's room and offered his escort, Sheridan hadn't planned. He had merely felt the whim to go, and had found no serious reason why he 'shouldn't indulge it. Seeing her so 'beautiful, however, and so smiling, he ■walked into"'the cabin and shut the door behind him. Terry was surprised at this move, for it seemed, somehow, utterly unlike Sheridan. She even had a startled idea that it couldn't be the right sort of thing for a man to do without asking permission. Still, the Prince who had become kind again, must know what was proper, and he being a prince, could do no wrong! She quickly fastened the bandeau of laurel leaves, and said, "I'm ready. It's very good of you to call for mc. I didn't suppose you would, for it isn't half the storm of last time! I thought when you knocked it would be Mrs. Harkness." "Mrs. Harkness is giving her patient —the seaman, Jones —some special doses she's concocted," Sheridan announced. "You won't have to go into the open, because I've had the communicating door between the saloon and my suite unlocked for you. All the same it's rather cold. Y'ou'd better throw something ove - / your shoulders, as you've got yourself up for a killing." The girl opened tfic wardrobe and found an ermine stole. Sheridan watched each movement, and took the wrap as she would have slipped it on. Seeing what he meant to do, she smiled up at him. "This is the first time I've worn a real dinner dress," she said—"l thought maybe you'd like it. ,, I "I do," he answered. Instead of winding round her figure the .stole he held in his hands, he bent down and pressed his lips to her neck, just where the little copper-red curls ringed at tlie nape. Terry jumped at the touch as if he had fired a revolver behind her back. Whirling to face him, she stared in simple amazement that was like a cold douche to his heated blood. He gave her look for look, however, and a slow smile turned down his lips. "Why—did you do that?" the girl gasped. "Why?" Sheridan repeated. "To break the bargain! It was already strained — wasn't it? Yo-i made mc realize that my troubles and humiliations haven't frozen my blood after all. That's rather a score for you in a wa}- —if you only knew! "Why should this cruise be one long Sunday-school picnic? Ah, take the cash, and let the credit go, nor heed the music of a distant drum! He flung away the ermine, and caught the girl by the wrists, but she held back, her breath coming fast, her face pale. (To be continued daily.) Three Welltngrtonlans, after a tiring: day' 3 sightseeing in Auckland, adjourned to the hotel bathroom, and obtained sreat relier tiy rubbing Q-tol into their reet muscles. — (Ad.)